Pre-Republic Day Greetings to those “regulars” who have followed this man-in-the street feature over its twenty-one years, as well as to those newer readers of the column.
Ever since I became associated with one of our newer Civil Society NGO’s, the Guyana National Council on Public Policy – the GNCPP – which is gearing up to be a premier local Think-Tank of local and Diasporic patriotic Guyanese personalities of accomplishment in diverse fields; and ever since a current Member of Parliament (MP) and former Minister described, to GNCPP Leader Dr P Mozart Thomas, Guyana’s emerging Civil Society movement as “a bunch of cowards,” I meant to explore the presence, status and role of some of our local Non-Government Organisations (NGO’s) which should collectively comprise that movement.
Two points to note up front here is that since my “new” GNCPP wishes to assist to embolden all of our NGO’s and CSO’s in successful pursuit of their own programmes I won’t even highlight my own personal views and analyses of those I consider to be either under-performing and dysfunctional, or co-opted and compromised as fronts or surrogates for the